Spanish moss hangs from the Live Oak,
a slow, beautiful murderer in the big city,
redolent of memories, blue music and smokey rooms,
drag queens crooning, a fight or two
late in the night while you sipped bourbon,
content in the corner,
listening less to the music than an internal dialogue,
devils and angels in your head
dancing a tattoo, making sultry peace with each other
as you scanned the crowd, seeking a distraction
as you courted oblivion at the stroke of midnight.

You sigh,
there is no glory in the memories. Life lived
and long ago discarded, without regrets
and without longing, happier to be in the light,
but parts of you were shaped by dark nights,
bluesy music and the grind of tinder before tinder,
a fire that never took in you,
a dead man in a plaid shirt in the corner of the bar
who somehow left more alive than he arrived.

I locked my keys in my baby car
She promised me a ride, done fell asleep,
left me up all alone.
I locked my keys in my baby car.
We went for a ride, didn't notice until
she left.
Couldn't get in my door last night.
Her new seat caressed me. Made me feel
right at home.
Didn't have a care in the world riding round
in my baby new car.
Nothing like the feeling of brand new tires.
Don't have to spend hours on in at the tire shop.
Next time I talk to my baby
I'll tell her that I locked my keys in her car.
The very next time she promises me a ride
I'll show her round the corner of what I dreamed
the night before.
The very next time she promises me a ride
I'll show my baby to the restaurant where I met
& dined with her a moment alone

In a moment of life, sweat running down my face
Bad case of shyness, silencing ones tongue from race
No sleep at nighttime, just seeing the sun rise
My senses all failing and my mind freezing over
A look in the mirror I didn’t recognise
Then it appeared as an hallucination
I heard her call for me
I had to slap myself over and over
This could just be a dream or this might just be heaven
Then it occurred to me, that I was on strong medication
The images and voices I heard that day
Were just from my imagination

Understand the Black Dog Illness
Not our choice (Not our choice)
Not our choice
Heaps of people with the Black Dog Illness
It doesn’t discriminate (It doesn’t discriminate)
It might just be lying in wait

Your mind is racing quickly, then goes into a frozen zone
You’ll have struggles daily, yearly, maybe to your gravestone
How you control yourself in the moment of the bark
Some handle it well, some can’t handle it at all

So phone a friend if needed
Say hello, was the answer what you’d expect?
They said, “How are you coping and sorry I left you, I shouldn’t disconnect?
And still those friends don’t call me, any day of the week
Sit by the phone, morning, afternoon and at night
Just to hear them speak

Understand the Black Dog Illness
Not our choice (Not our choice)
Not our choice
Society needs to talk to about the Black Dog Illness
So no one’s alone (So no one’s alone)
It might be you one day, ok

Moments of frustration
Retirement not an option
Some say, "You aren’t really sick, just your minds full of toxin”
And in the family circle
They gathered for an intervention
Some still don’t get what it controls
And they think it’s my own invention

Last thing I want to address
Is the way family and friends that you adore
Just think it’s easy going back to the way I was before
"Time will heal," said the bible man
"We are promised our own path
You can work it out, in your own time
But you have to believe!"

A roach came to work with me
in my shoe.

It's a true story.

I shook him out of my laces

And he joined in with a new group
of bugs on the ground.

He can get renter's insurance for
$10 a month.

I'm back, eating lunch in the car
by the path.

And cake.

That's a start.

The feeling I get is a sin but it takes me to heaven
My heart was planted here but no longer grows
Love flows but surely is not dying on a cross

Let the blood river run through me
Take my blues away
Move with me
Like the wind moves the Sea

I've seen the Reaper tear through my eyes
Flames splitting waves of time
Dancing around the trails of phantom horses

And my soul mate is dead and gone
I'll watch under the frozen river for him in Autumn
See him when the sun sets in Spring

Here I am again
Rolling out with the waves
It's pitch black and I'm swallowing midnight
I start to lower and become one with the body of time
Fear steps in and takes over
Like I'm some dummy in a ventriloquist gig

I see the lady with the blue flaming eyes
She tests me
God dangles the Holy Grail in front of my eyes
But I'm almost full

Here he comes
Blood gathers under my chest plate
Ash in an hour glass
I think I know him better when he's dreaming

What a tease
Waking moments
Longing moments
As I'm torn from his arms yet again

Below the window, scales glimmer with moonlight
Through the murky blades
As I welcome Death like an old friend telling jokes to fill the silence
The Dead come singing in tongues
The sounds amidst the field affirm that I'm not dreaming

Dusk is layered and securing my skin
A sweet kind of tune
In between realities
I've heard this song before

Like a drunken clown on a merry-go-round
Here he comes
Now I don't fear him
Shaking diamond dice and rolling snake eyes
I roll two sixes and I know it's time to leave this dream